Victreebel, the final evolution of Bellsprout, resembles Carnivine in appearance, much like a pitcher plant, but its main body is a yellow blossom covered with dark yellow spots.
At this moment, Victreebel stood upright. A leaf growing from its head covered its gaping mouth that pointed toward the sky; otherwise, the audience would surely have been startled by the sight of the unusually sharp fangs lining its jaws, sharper than those of its kind.
"Clear the field," Grayson waved his hand.
As soon as Victreebel entered the field, it extended leaf blade and swirled countless green leaves to unleash a Leaf Tornado, blasting away the layer of ice remaining on the field from the previous battle.
"Grayson specializes in Grass type, but he's perfectly countered by the opponent's Flying type and Ice type. He's really unlucky."
"If he hadn't specialized in one type, he wouldn't have made it this far. Gains and losses, who can really say?"
The watching Champion League contestants waved their hands awkwardly, but they could all hear the lack of confidence in their own words.
Grass Star Style Grayson—compared to his previous performances in the Champion League, the strength he had displayed in this match was far greater. It could be said… it wasn't that he wasn't strong enough, but that his opponent was simply too strong.
"Good thing this Grayson is facing Contest Master Terrance first. Otherwise, if they had suddenly unleashed this level of strength, I would have really had a hard time dealing with them..."
In the stands, a Champion League contestant secretly felt relieved, glad to have come to watch in person. With this valuable firsthand information, whether facing Terrance or Grayson later, he could gain an advantage.
"So how are you going to get rid of the Snowy Weather this time?"
On the battlefield, Ninetales stood tall, its nine beautiful tails stirring up endless ice and snow. Above, dense snow clouds gathered as the seamless combination of Snow Warning and Hail unleashed an overwhelming, awe-inspiring force.
Fighting, Fire, Rock, and Steel; the four types that could suppress Ice were all that Victreebel hadn't grasped yet.
This meant it couldn't rely on type advantage like Ludicolo had to dispel Ninetales' Snowy Weather.
With Snowy Weather suppressing Grass-type Pokémon, even though this Victreebel was fairly strong, it appeared incredibly small amid the vast storm of ice and snow.
"Blizzard!"
"Leaf Storm!"
Two storms—one of ice and snow, the other of green leaves—began to collide across the field.
The freezing wind howled as it pierced through the leaf storm and swept toward Victreebel's area. At first, Victreebel managed to remain calm under the chilling gusts, but as the cold wind surged back again and again, it thoroughly invaded Victreebel's body. The leaf storm simply couldn't block the power of Blizzard under Snowy Weather. By the time the fifth surge of freezing wind broke through, Victreebel's body had already stiffened with frost. It ceased reinforcing the leaf storm and began wildly swinging the leaves at its sides.
Swords Dance!
"Use Swords Dance to loosen up your body and shake off the ice, then use Leaf Blade to strike Blizzard back!"
Facing the surging Blizzard, Grayson took a deep breath. This battle was extremely difficult. After Ludicolo's resistance, he had thought he'd found a way to deal with Ninetales. But who would have expected Snowy Weather to be this powerful? Not only had it crushed Ludicolo, it exuded a chill even colder than a harsh winter's Blizzard. As the wind blew past, the cold seeped directly into Victreebel's mind, then slowly spread throughout its body, as if it were about to freeze it into a solid block of ice. This was precisely the disadvantage Grass-type Pokémon faced when battling Ice-type Pokémon.
"Ice Beam combined with Aurora Beam."
Terrance spoke calmly; the rhythm of the battle had already tilted in his favor.
What set him apart from Grayson was that each of his Pokémon possessed an extremely unique fighting style. While Grayson's Pokémon have a few tricks, they are not in the same league as the Grass Star Style technique, and after several battles, the Grass Star Style technique no longer posed any threat in Terrance's eyes.
As Victreebel frantically resisted Blizzard, a circular mirror appeared in the sky.
It stood suspended in the air like Ninetales' pupil.
With a buzzing hum, Victreebel, having finally dispersed Blizzard, was attracted and looked up.
"Destroy it!" Grayson immediately ordered.
But as the circular mirror, resembling an eye, began to glow with a sheen of light, Victreebel briefly lost focus and failed to obey its Trainer's command.
That spreading pink gleam was like a vertical eye, radiating overwhelming intimidation.
It was precisely this intimidation that stunned Victreebel.
Terrance had called it a combination of Ice Beam and Aurora Beam, but he had left out a crucial prerequisite move: Baby-Doll Eyes!
With the intimidation reflected through Baby-Doll Eyes, it would be extremely difficult for the opponent to evade this combo move.
In an instant, two intertwining beams burst forth from the circular mirror. The moves Ice Beam and Aurora Beam were reflected at full intensity from the mirror's surface, combining into a multicolored surge of blue, white, pink, and purple. Then, carrying a dense, freezing chill, this brilliant beam of light came crashing down.
"Victreebel!!" Grayson shouted urgently once more. Victreebel finally snapped out of Baby-Doll Eyes' intimidation, but it was too late. When it swung up its Leaf Blade to block in front of itself, the beam had already pierced through both the Leaf Blade and its body.
Crack…
In an instant, layers of ice covered Victreebel's entire body, sealing its movements. Under Aurora Beam's effect, its Leaf Blade's power dropped, leaving it unable to withstand the attack. Ice Beam completely froze it, robbing it of mobility. The next moment, the raging Snowy Weather turned into a storm and swallowed Victreebel whole once again.
"Victreebel is unable to battle. Contestant Grayson, please send out your next Pokémon."
"Only one left…"
Grayson weakly recalled Victreebel. After offering it a word of comfort, he sighed. Terrance still had four Pokémon remaining, two of which had yet to appear. His chances of turning this battle around were nearly zero.
"Exeggutor, I'll count on you!"
Soon, a Pokémon with legs, resembling a coconut tree or pineapple tree, with three heads, appeared on the field.
Terrance did not choose to switch Pokémon and kept Ninetales on the field.
After two battles, Ninetales had already suffered significant exhaustion. However, with Pupitar and Gardevoir having stepped down and Beautifly ready to take the next turn, Terrance intended to let Ninetales give it one final push. He hoped to use Exeggutor's pressure to push it even further.
4 vs 6, this was Terrance's goal.
"Use Leaf Storm!!" Grayson commanded solemnly.
Clearly, Exeggutor also had no way to counter Snowy Weather. Although both Victreebel and Exeggutor possessed Poison-type moves that were quite effective against Ninetales, without breaking through Snowy Weather's interference, they simply couldn't harm it.
"Keep using Blizzard!" Terrance ordered.
Unlike the previous battle, this time Exeggutor split its focus and used psychic power to block the freezing wind. Soon, Exeggutor and Ninetales fell into a stalemate…
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