"Use Thunder."
Sato knew the characteristics of Zapdos extremely well. A little steam interference was impossible to obstruct his vision, so he immediately took advantage of the opportunity and used telepathy to order Zapdos to launch a fierce attack.
Upon receiving Sato's command, the lightning surrounding Zapdos suddenly intensified. Thick bolts of lightning shot out from its body one after another, precisely striking Weavile below.
However, Sophia's Weavile had undergone extensive training. The moment Zapdos began using Thunder, it immediately sensed that danger was approaching.
Although Sophia was temporarily unable to see the situation on the field because of the steam and therefore could not issue a response, Weavile immediately took the most effective action on its own.
Weavile used Icicle Crash. It rapidly gathered a large amount of Ice-type energy into its claws before suddenly slamming them against the ground beneath it.
In an instant, countless ice pillars of varying heights erupted from the ground around Weavile.
The dense forest of ice pillars surrounded Weavile. At this moment, these towering pillars seemed to possess some of the properties of a Lightning Rod. The bolts released by Zapdos fell onto the ice pillars one after another, exploding upon impact.
The explosions generated powerful gusts of wind that immediately dispersed the white steam, finally restoring visibility to both sides.
"Use Hone Claws to shatter the ice, then follow up with Fling."
As soon as Sophia saw the situation on the battlefield, she immediately issued her command to Weavile.
"Use Heat Wave."
The instant Sophia finished speaking, Sato also gave his command to Zapdos.
Weavile was ultimately a step faster. It immediately used its sharp claws to rapidly grind down the surrounding ice pillars with practiced skill. In the blink of an eye, countless sharp chunks of ice were produced.
It then used Fling to hurl the ice chunks at Zapdos at high speed. The densely packed shards came screaming through the air, instantly sealing off an area within ten meters of Zapdos and restricting its movement.
Faced with Weavile's fierce assault, Zapdos remained completely composed. Pure Fire-type energy rapidly gathered within its wings before it suddenly flapped them forward.
A scorching storm immediately swept down toward Weavile below.
As the blistering storm passed through the air, the countless chunks of ice racing toward Zapdos rapidly melted into water before quickly turning into steam and disappearing into the air.
In the blink of an eye, Zapdos had completely neutralized Weavile's attack with Heat Wave.
But that wasn't the end of it.
The scorching storm continued to sweep violently downward toward Weavile. The snow and ice pillars covering the Ice-type battlefield rapidly melted, and the icy battlefield gradually began transforming into a Water-type battlefield.
Heat Wave was ultimately a wide-area offensive move, so its power against a single target was rather limited. Sophia's Weavile was carrying Never-Melt Ice, an extremely precious Ice-type treasure, so Heat Wave had almost no effect on it. At most, it made Weavile feel slightly uncomfortable.
Thus, Weavile took advantage of the moment when Zapdos was using Heat Wave to launch Ice Beam at it.
Clearly, this Elite-Four level Weavile had mastered Ice Beam, a same-type move, to an extraordinary degree. It could release the move instantaneously even while moving, and with the assistance of the Never-Melt Ice around its neck, it could practically use Ice Beam without limit.
For a while, Weavile relied on its excellent mobility to move rapidly across the snow, firing Ice Beam at Zapdos from different angles.
Sato immediately ordered Zapdos to use Rapid Clones, a combination technique incorporating Agility and Double Team, to deal with it.
In the blink of an eye, countless clones of Zapdos appeared in the sky. Weavile's Ice Beam was completely incapable of striking Zapdos's true body.
Unable to determine which one was the real Zapdos, Weavile had no choice but to stop attacking and stare helplessly at the Zapdos hovering overhead.
Agility and Double Team had extremely good synergy. The former could help the latter create more clones, thereby greatly increasing the user's evasion rate.
There had been a time when Zapdos had relied on precisely this technique to toy with Mega Swampert, which was incapable of flying, until it was completely at a loss.
Now, Sato had Zapdos repeat the same tactic, immediately putting the Weavile below completely under its control.
Since Weavile could use Icicle Crash to create an ice formation that blocked Zapdos's Electric-type attacks, Sato stopped wasting Zapdos's electrical energy. Instead, he calmly continued having Zapdos use Heat Wave against Weavile.
It seemed as though Sato intended to use this safe method to slowly boil Weavile like a frog.
Because Weavile could not fly, most of its ranged offensive moves were unable to inflict substantial damage on Zapdos, and Sophia had still been unable to find an effective way to deal with Zapdos. As a result, all Weavile could do was silently endure Zapdos's seemingly harmless Heat Wave attacks.
After more than ten minutes of fierce fighting, Sophia was no longer as composed as she had been at the beginning. Her brows were tightly furrowed, and a trace of anxiety had appeared in her eyes.
In contrast, Sato remained completely relaxed, and the expression in his eyes had hardly changed at all.
"Damn it. This person is too steady. If this continues, Weavile won't have even the slightest chance of winning. The Legendary Birds really are the Legendary Birds. To defeat such a powerful Pokémon, I have to find a Pokémon that can counter it. Otherwise, winning is simply too difficult."
Sophia pursed her red lips and stared intently at the calm battle unfolding before her, feeling extremely frustrated.
As Zapdos used Heat Wave more and more frequently, most of the ice and snow covering the Ice-type battlefield had already melted.
Large pools of water now divided the ground into sections. Whenever Weavile stepped into one, its feet produced crisp splashing sounds.
"Not good! His target is the battlefield itself! Weavile, quickly use Ice Beam on the water!"
Sophia noticed the changes taking place across the icy battlefield and vaguely sensed the tactic Sato had been concealing.
When Weavile stepped into a puddle and nearly lost its balance, she finally realized what was happening. She immediately shouted toward Weavile, which was currently taking shelter behind a block of solid ice to defend against Heat Wave.
"You only noticed now? Isn't it a little too late?"
After hearing Sophia's command, Sato knew he could no longer wait.
"Zapdos, finish it. Use Thunder on the water covering the ground!"
Ice and snow were poor conductors of electricity, and their conductivity depended heavily on the amount of impurities present. The more impurities there were, the better their conductivity; conversely, the purer they were, the worse their conductivity.
During the battle, Sato had noticed very early on that the snow covering the Ice-type battlefield was extremely pure and therefore difficult to conduct electricity.
The ice created by Weavile using Icicle Crash, on the other hand, was much easier to conduct electricity. However, because the bases of those ice pillars were surrounded by snow, the electricity often couldn't produce an electric shock against Weavile standing in the snow. Instead, it could only be diverted into the ground.
Therefore, Sato had deliberately and patiently transformed the Ice-type battlefield into a Water-type battlefield, attempting to eliminate as much of the snow as possible.
The ground beneath the Ice-type battlefield was made of soil. Once the snow melted into water, it would inevitably mix with a large amount of impurities.
That meant that even if the water later froze back into snow or ice, it would no longer be capable of blocking Zapdos's Electric-type attacks.
Sure enough, although Weavile immediately followed Sophia's command and used Ice Beam to turn all the surrounding water into ice, before rapidly using Icicle Crash to create another ice formation, it was now standing on solid ice rather than the extremely poor-conducting snow.
As a result, it could no longer avoid the terrifying electrical current flowing through the ice pillars.
Zapdos unleashed Thunder, and bolts of lightning continuously descended from its body.
Even though the ice pillars diverted most of the lightning, Weavile, trapped inside the ice formation, still had to endure the powerful electrical assault.
Before long, the Weavile that had fought Zapdos for so long was burned completely black by the electricity. It collapsed to the ground, unwilling to accept defeat.
Sato had won.
Yet he didn't feel particularly happy.
He quietly glanced at Sophia, whose face showed a trace of unwillingness, then recalled Zapdos into its PokeBall.
Immediately afterward, he turned around and walked toward a large gate that was slowly opening.
After passing through the gate, Sato found himself in an open area.
At the far end of the open ground stood an isolated high-rise building. On the balcony at the top floor, a familiar domineering figure appeared in his field of vision.
"Kid, where are you looking? If you want to go up and meet the boss, you'll have to defeat me first. Otherwise, you'll only be able to talk to the boss from down here. Hahaha!"
Suddenly, a mocking voice came from directly above Sato.
At the same time, a huge shadow enveloped him.