Scary Face, a status move that sharply lowers the opponent's Speed stat upon hitting.
Of course, Sean knew that if this continued, his Braviary would simply be worn down by Pidgeot, who was exploiting its superior speed to drag out the battle until Braviary ran out of stamina.
The situation on the field made it clear to him — just boosting his own stats wasn't enough. He needed to slow the opponent down.
Only by combining those two raising Braviary's speed and reducing Pidgeot's could he have a chance of keeping up.
The problem was, Sean had underestimated Pidgeot's speed.
Judging from Pidgeot's performance in previous rounds, he had assumed that Braviary, under the effects of Tailwind, could barely keep up with Pidgeot when it used Agility.
In close-range combat, Braviary could have easily overpowered it.
But unexpectedly, even after sweeping three opponents in the first elimination match, Pidgeot still had plenty of speed in reserve.
Right now, its on-field movement speed was at least 10% faster than what it had shown before — a massive difference.
Although Sean had prepared for some speed retention on Silas's side, this was far beyond his calculations.
"Use Quick Attack to pull away!" Silas commanded.
He sighed internally, this opponent was clearly someone who liked to gather intel before battles and devise specific counter-strategies.
His tactics were solid at every phase.
Trainers like that were the hardest to deal with.
Good thing Silas had held something back.
On the field, Pidgeot's body flashed white, instantly dashing a short distance away and narrowly dodging Braviary's Scary Face.
Unlike in the games, status moves like Scary Face had a limited range here — they needed to be used at close proximity to take effect.
That meant you had to time it perfectly for a 100% success rate.
Otherwise, from a distance, it was relatively easy to evade.
"Hey, stop running away already!" Sean couldn't help taunting Silas mid-battle.
"I'm not running. We're battling, aren't we? No need to rush to lose," Silas shot back casually.
It was nothing more than a psychological tactic and Silas could play that game too.
"If I were you, I'd tell Pidgeot to use Aerial Ace. What's the point of slicing the air from afar with Air Slash? Real battles are about hits that land," Sean tried to provoke him.
"No wonder your past tournament results weren't that great," Silas countered without hesitation. "Seems like your command skills can't keep up. Shame about your Pokémon, though."
Sean was speechless and mortified.
Not because Silas said his skills were lacking everyone understood what he meant but because mentioning his poor tournament record hit a raw nerve.
It wasn't even his fault. The last two times, he'd been eliminated in the first round of the knockout stage by top 10 seeded Trainers. With that kind of bad luck, who could perform well?
He'd hoped that this, his third tournament, would finally take him into the Top 64 only to be stopped yet again.
Sean felt completely numb. His strength wasn't bad at all, and yet…
Watching his Braviary, now out of Tailwind, being chased around the arena by Pidgeot's ranged Air Slash attacks — like a dog being toyed with — he was almost out of options.
"Tailwind!" he called again.
Even though it was basically a slow suicide, he couldn't just stand there and do nothing.
As Braviary's speed began to rise again, Pidgeot calmly ended its Air Slash barrage, keeping its Agility active as it led Braviary on a cat-and-mouse chase around the skies.
Shameless but effective.
Silas's expression remained calm.
He ignored the crowd, whose cheers had gone from wild excitement to quiet acceptance over the course of the long aerial duel.
The referee also had no grounds to intervene. Pidgeot's evasive tactics didn't count as losing the will to fight.
Even during Tailwind's active time, it barely skirted the edge of that rule but since Tailwind's duration was short, it never met the full disqualification criteria.
"Honestly, that doesn't look like a young Trainer's battling style at all," commented Lorelei, the red-haired member of the Kanto Elite Four, watching from a private box overlooking the Water Field.
Beside her, the blonde-haired Cynthia said nothing, simply observing.
No one really knew what brought these two powerful Trainers here to watch a simple elimination match.
Still, it was probably a good thing the private viewing room was one-way transparent, or else the sight of these two stunning women sitting together would have completely stolen the audience's attention — no one would've watched the battle.
"Braviary, use U-turn!" Sean commanded.
As the Tailwind effect finally wore off, in order to prevent Braviary from being directly defeated and to avoid a 100% certain loss, Sean had no choice but to switch out to his next Pokémon.
This was originally the worst-case scenario he had imagined but unexpectedly, he was forced to resort to it.
U-turn, a Bug-type move, allows the user to strike the target and then immediately return to its Poké Ball, switching places with another teammate.
It's a highly strategic move.
Although it counts as a voluntary switch, using U-turn prevents the incoming Pokémon from being placed in a disadvantageous "second strike" position.
After Braviary's ineffective long-range attack was easily dodged by Pidgeot, it transformed into red light and returned to its Poké Ball.
At the same time, another Poké Ball on Sean's belt automatically popped open, and a beam of red light shot out.
A Pokémon with a grayish-blue, eel-like body emerged in the water, gazing up toward the Pidgeot in the sky.
It had arm-like fins with red circles ringed by yellow at their centers, surrounded by three sharp claws—its tools for catching prey.
Its round, suction-cup-shaped mouth pointed downward, lined with four razor-sharp fangs capable of conducting electricity. White scales shimmered near the base of its tail, while yellow spots dotted its body.
It was none other than the Eelektross, a Pokémon native to the Unova region.
Although it lived in the water, don't be mistaken—this was a pure Electric-type Pokémon, with no connection to the Water-type at all.
Its first form, Tynamo, looked cute enough, but once it evolved into Eelektrik around level 39, it became much less adorable—
and by the time it used a Thunder Stone to evolve into Eelektross, it was outright intimidating.
Over two meters long and weighing more than eighty kilograms, an Eelektross exuded sheer menace, the kind of look that could stop a baby from crying... or make it cry harder.
"What a great choice!
Sean Grant, hailing from the distant Unova region, has sent out a Pokémon that seems extremely favorable in this water-field matchup.
As an Electric-type, Eelektross holds a clear advantage both over Silas's Flying-type Pidgeot and any possible Water-type Pokémon Silas might send out next!"
The announcer shouted with excitement—finally, something other than hit-and-run tactics!
He could actually do his job again.
Silas and Sean exchanged a glance, silently agreeing that this commentator wasn't very sharp.
Silas hadn't even registered any Water-type Pokémon for this battle.
And setting aside those unusable on a water field, Sean figured he could easily guess his opponent's three picks.
Togekiss was guaranteed, and it would be Ampharos or Serperior as the remaining choice.
That much didn't even require guessing—no way Silas would send out his weakest Leafeon, right?
"Even though your Pidgeot's strength exceeded my expectations," Sean thought, his confidence returning, "you're still too young. Sorry but I've already calculated everything."
Silas read that look in his eyes and curled his lips into a mysterious smile.
Yeah—"I" calculated it all right.
"Pidgeot, use U-turn."
He issued the exact same command Sean had just given.
As Eelektross dove underwater to dodge Pidgeot's attack, everyone in the audience watched in astonishment as a new Pokémon appeared on the field.
..
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