"Is this Annihilape? So strong!"
"No! It must be that his trainer is powerful. To think he could cultivate an Annihilape to this extent!"
"Can we even defeat this Annihilape?"
"I don't know. We might need a Leader Rank participant to step up."
Various voices rippled through the spectator stands. Experienced trainers already clearly understood the current situation: it was exceptionally dire.
Even if their side sent out their captain to eliminate Gu Yuan, how much combat strength would their captain have left afterward? The opposing team still had two more people. Looking at it that way, they seemed to have no chance of victory. Now, everything depended on whether their captain could perform as excellently as Gu Yuan while defeating him.
Under the crowd's anticipation, the Hoenn League gave their answer by sending out their captain, Hawkins.
Gu Yuan had a deep impression of Hawkins. The man was a fan of Steven Stone, so his Pokémon choices mirrored Steven's. His strongest Pokémon was the Hoenn pseudo-legendary, Metagross, which Hawkins had raised to the Leader Rank. Additionally, Hawkins possessed Aggron, Skarmory, Claydol, Excadrill, and Cradily. From this roster, it was clear Hawkins was a "rich second generation" like Steven, though perhaps not quite as wealthy. Otherwise, ordinary trainers couldn't hope to imitate Steven's team.
"Go, Aggron!"
The Poké Ball opened, and a massive Aggron appeared on the field. While the average height for the species is 2.1m, Hawkins's Aggron stood nearly three meters tall, showing how well it had been nurtured.
Under the system's detection function, Aggron's detailed information appeared before Gu Yuan. Among its TM moves was the rare Metal Burst. This was a skill Aggron usually only mastered after reaching Champion Rank strength.
Metal Burst deals 1.5 times the damage received from the last move used by the opponent. If Gu Yuan let Annihilape use Rage Fist on Aggron, Annihilape would likely fall to Metal Burst in the next second. Gu Yuan's best choice was to recall Annihilape and let another Pokémon handle Aggron before sending Annihilape back out. The only downside was that recalling it would reset the accumulated power of Rage Fist.
However, looking at Annihilape's high battle spirit, Gu Yuan decisively abandoned that idea.
"Go, Annihilape! Shadow Ball!"
Seizing the initiative, Gu Yuan had Annihilape attack first.
"Aggron, Flash Cannon!"
A silver-white beam shot out, directly neutralizing the Shadow Ball. Instead of rushing the attack, Annihilape used Swords Dance to buff itself.
"Aggron, Iron Defense!"
Hawkins didn't rush to attack either; he had Aggron boost its defense. His reason for sending Aggron out first was the same as Gu Yuan's suspicion: to crush Annihilape with Metal Burst. The prerequisite was that Aggron had to survive Annihilape's first strike, so its defense had to match Annihilape's attack power.
"Charge, Annihilape! Phantom Force!"
The moment Swords Dance was successful, Annihilape followed Gu Yuan's command and vanished into the pocket dimension. Concentrating intensely, Aggron prepared to use Metal Burst.
The next second, Annihilape burst out. It used Leer to lower Aggron's defense, followed immediately by a Rage Fist slamming into Aggron's body. Intense pain rapidly surged through Aggron's entire frame. Despite this, Aggron fulfilled its mission and successfully unleashed Metal Burst.
A silver light enveloped Aggron and then violently erupted. It happened so fast that Annihilape had no time to use Phantom Force to escape back into the pocket dimension. The light expanded, covering the entire battlefield.
Annihilape, Rage Fist!
The moment the light began to fade, Gu Yuan's voice echoed in Annihilape's mind.
When the light finally cleared, the battlefield around Aggron had been destroyed, leaving a giant crater. To Hawkins's disbelief, Annihilape had not lost its ability to battle. Instead, it delivered one final punch to Aggron. Only after throwing this punch did Annihilape collapse into unconsciousness—but Aggron was no better, falling under that final Rage Fist.
"Endure... I truly didn't expect that Annihilape's willpower would be so staggering!"
Hawkins quickly analyzed what had happened, his voice full of shock. Endure allows a Pokémon to survive any attack with a single point of health remaining. It works wonders with Pokémon like Charizard, but it cannot block pain. Considering Aggron's Metal Burst was even more powerful than Rage Fist, Annihilape had maintained consciousness through that agony just to land a final blow. That iron willpower alone earned Hawkins's respect.
Nevertheless, Hawkins immediately released his second Pokémon. He didn't choose a Steel-type; instead, he sent out Claydol. He had calculated that after Claydol defeated Sylveon, it could still maneuver against Charizard. If he chose a Steel-type, it would likely be easily crushed by Charizard.
Of course, this was assuming Claydol could defeat Sylveon. Hawkins had been confident originally, but after witnessing Annihilape's performance, he wasn't so sure anymore.
"Claydol, Sandstorm!"
"Sylveon, Sunny Day!"
Both commands rang out, and the two opposing weather effects canceled each other out. The next second, without a direct command from Hawkins, Claydol used Teleport to vanish. Gu Yuan knew this was Claydol using Telepathy to receive Hawkins's silent commands.
Moonlight fell as Sylveon controlled Moonblast to form a defense, blocking Claydol's attack the moment it reappeared. Claydol used Cosmic Power to boost its Defense and Special Defense, but Sylveon was not to be outdone, using Psych Up to copy Claydol's stat changes for itself.
To the spectators, Gu Yuan and Hawkins might have looked like mere bystanders. Only the two of them knew what an intense test this was for a trainer—a battle entirely reliant on observation and predicting the opponent's moves.