Unlike Kashiwagi, who deliberately kept a low profile with his hood up, his opponent was far from subtle. Not only was he wearing his faction's uniform, but he was also shouting his background for all to hear.
"Remember this name—it belongs to the man who beats you today!"
Even in this short window, he has to do a pre-match taunt?
Kashiwagi ignored the guy, who was acting like a general in a period drama demanding his opponent's name. Instead, he pulled out a Poké Ball and took a deep breath. No matter how foolish the opponent seemed, he couldn't afford to be careless.
The red light on the wall began to flicker. The opponent finally shut up, gripping his Poké Ball in preparation.
An instant later, the green light flared to life accompanied by a long, low hum. Both trainers rushed toward their respective command positions and hurled their Poké Balls!
Pop! Pop!
White light flashed. Lairon landed first, lifting its head to face the opposing Pokémon—a large, sleek lizard with jet-black skin and crimson flame patterns. It exuded an air of sinister elegance and a heavy, pheromone-like aura.
Salazzle, the Toxic Lizard Pokémon, a Fire and Poison type.
"Sa-la~"
"Watch out for its poison. It might actually work on you," Kashiwagi reminded Lairon.
Salazzle possessed the Corrosion ability, allowing it to inflict the Poison status on Steel-type Pokémon using moves like Toxic. It was a threat that had to be accounted for.
"Lair-on!" Lairon growled in understanding.
Across the field, the opponent's face, which had lit up with joy at the sight of a Steel-type, immediately soured upon hearing Kashiwagi's warning.
"You actually know about that!?"
Salazzle's ability had allowed him to ambush countless opponents. He never expected someone to see right through his trump card in the very first round of the main tournament. How was that possible?
"Rock Tomb!"
Kashiwagi didn't waste words. He decided to play a long-range game. Engaging in close quarters was an invitation to be poisoned silently; when a Pokémon releases venom at point-blank range, it's as fast and precise as a wild animal, leaving almost no room for a trainer to react. It all came down to the Pokémon's own reflexes.
Lairon slammed its claws into the ground, and numerous massive, jagged boulders shot forward, converging on Salazzle!
Whoosh—Whoosh—
The rocks tore through the air with a violent whistle.
"Smash them with Flame Burst!" the opponent roared.
A long whip of fire coalesced in Salazzle's grip. She lashed out repeatedly, striking the incoming boulders and shattering them into fragments. At first, she successfully broke two, but by the third, she began to struggle. The fourth and fifth boulders carried too much momentum; in that split second of hesitation, she was struck.
Rumble!
The rocks slammed down one after another. Salazzle let out a hiss of pain, stumbling back as she barely managed to brace herself.
"So heavy!" The opponent was in disbelief. He knew exactly how much power his Salazzle's Flame Burst carried. Usually, rocks of this size were nothing to her—even rocks twice as big should have crumbled! How?
On the other side, Kashiwagi's brow twitched upward. Lairon's moves had improved significantly in proficiency, specifically in the hardness and impact of the stones it conjured after it stopped focusing on sheer size. This "quality over quantity" approach had already been certified by Mawile's iron fists during training.
What surprised Kashiwagi was that Salazzle, as a final evolution, was frailer than he'd imagined. Two boulders had already left her dizzy and wobbling.
So glass-cannon-like.
Then again, Salazzle's physical defense was never high, and being weak to Rock-type moves was a recipe for disaster. As for the opponent's refusal to dodge and insistence on power-clashing, Kashiwagi was long since used to it. These trainers all possessed a mysterious, overflowing confidence in their Pokémon's raw power, believing they could shatter any move thrown at them while their own attacks were irresistible.
They clearly didn't understand the beauty of the "Dodge it!" tactical miracle. This "meat-head" style of fighting fit their identity as gangsters perfectly; to climb the ranks in the underworld, you needed two parts logic and eight parts "guts."
"Rock Blast!"
"Lair-on!"
Lairon growled as sand on the ground and dust in the air coalesced into sharp, glowing rock projectiles. They whistled through the air toward Salazzle. Compared to the massive but slower Rock Tomb, Rock Blast had the advantage of higher projectile speed and a much shorter startup animation.
Seeing Salazzle still dazed from the previous hit, the opponent bit his tongue. "Hide behind the rock and stay still!"
Since she couldn't move quickly enough to evade, he opted to use the environment. Salazzle groggily tucked herself behind one of the massive boulders from the previous Rock Tomb, using it as a shield.
He hadn't expected the sheer power of the Rock Blast. Two consecutive hits shattered the "shield" boulder with a deafening bang, followed by more projectiles slamming directly into Salazzle's body.
Thump! Thump!
"Sa-laaa—"
Salazzle let out a raspy scream. The smoke from the shattering rocks engulfed her, then quickly cleared to reveal her eyes spinning in circles. The red light on the wall began to flash for her.
"..."
The opponent was stunned into silence. He hadn't expected his Pokémon to be defeated so effortlessly. Meanwhile, that Lairon looked like it hadn't even broken a sweat.
Kashiwagi wasn't surprised that Rock Blast had broken the Rock Tomb boulder; they had specifically practiced for this. In a previous training session, Mawile had used Lairon's own Rock Tomb boulders to hide from follow-up attacks, which was a valuable lesson for him. If Mawile would hide behind a rock, an enemy surely would too.
He waited for the opponent to switch, but the man just stared at Lairon in a daze. He was actually spacing out in the middle of a high-stakes match!
Suddenly, the red light began flashing faster, and the overhead speakers started a countdown. The opponent snapped out of it, recalled Salazzle, and sent out his second Pokémon—Slugma, the Lava Pokémon.
It was a creature composed entirely of molten red lava, resembling a gastropod with bright yellow eyes and flame-like antennae. Its surface swirled constantly to stay active. But the moment it emerged from the Poké Ball and touched the ground, the earth beneath it collapsed. A massive pit, large enough to swallow the trainer himself, formed instantly.
Slugma had no chance to dodge; it fell right into the center, struggling to climb out.
"Ah!"
The opponent was shocked, looking at Kashiwagi with wide eyes. "I didn't hear a command!?"
"...Sand Tomb." Kashiwagi completed the verbal command with a look of mock politeness.
He looked at the Slugma with a hint of pity. To have a trainer who spaces out during a 2v2 match, and to be a Fire-type facing a Lairon that knew Ground moves...
You're just born under a bad star.
"Flame Burst!" The opponent tried to put up a fight. Slugma churned its lava surface, creating a massive bubble of magma that exploded outward. Unfortunately, the splashing lava couldn't even reach Lairon, who was standing safely outside the pit.
"Lava Plume!" the opponent yelled again.
But Lairon simply stayed back. There was no way to reach it. Does he have no other types?
"Let's end this. Rock Tomb." Kashiwagi pointed to the sky.
Lairon understood. It slammed its claws into the ground, and numerous boulders shot into the air, curving down in a perfect arc to plummet into the sand pit, crashing onto the struggling Slugma.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
One by one, the rocks buried it.
A one-sided type-matchup. A one-sided, total destruction.