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The Semifinals.
After two days of intense competition, this year's High School Cup had finally reached its top four stage.
Julia had defeated Chaim, Augustine had defeated Julien, and Ariana had defeated Vicente.
As a result, three of the four semifinalists were seeded players chosen through official polls, with the only exception being Ariana.
Ariana should have been a seeded player by all rights, but because she had been the runner-up in the provincial tournament, she didn't meet the specific conditions for seeded player status and therefore wasn't selected.
This outcome demonstrated that the officials' predictions regarding the contestants' strength levels had been remarkably accurate.
After a brief three-day rest period, today would feature the first match of the semifinals, with Jacob battling Augustine.
Tomorrow would be Julia versus Ariana.
"Dear audience members, welcome to the semifinals of the High School Cup National Finals. The two contestants appearing today should already be very familiar to everyone." Boston still spoke in fluent, polished tones with a broadcasting quality that made him extremely pleasant to listen to.
"One is Jacob, the strongest dark horse competitor from Frosthollow Province, and the other is Augustine, the talented Trainer from Aetherion City."
"Let us welcome them to the stage with enthusiastic applause."
The commentators were still the familiar duo of Boston and Aubrey.
Amidst the thunderous cheers of the audience, Jacob and Augustine entered through the contestant passages on opposite sides of the arena.
...…
Jacob wore the Starlight City battle uniform as usual, with the Key Stone pendant hanging around his neck and the Key Stone ring on his hand being particularly noticeable.
Augustine, on the other hand, wore the Aetherion City battle uniform, with his distinctive silver hair being exceptionally eye-catching.
What a show-off.
Looking at that silver hair, Jacob thought to himself, 'Should I dye my hair red too, wear a straw hat, and form an organization called the Red Hair Pirates, telling everyone I meet to give me some respect?'
...…
Augustine looked at Jacob, his brows tightly furrowed in concentration.
He disliked Jacob intensely.
By relying on Mega Evolution, Jacob had reached a height that didn't originally belong to him, which seemed deeply unfair to those who had relied purely on their own strength to reach the top eight of the High School Cup National Finals.
If all participating contestants could use Mega Evolution, Jacob absolutely wouldn't have made it to the top four.
But the other contestants didn't have Key Stones and Mega Stones, nor could they afford to purchase them.
Currently, the market price for a single Mega Stone exceeded 100 million Pokédollars, while a Key Stone had never even appeared on the market, let alone been available for purchase.
So nobody dared to openly show their dissatisfaction with Jacob. Instead, they all had to maintain friendly smiles around him.
Nobody wanted to offend Jacob.
Because Jacob's reputation had grown simply too massive. His status in China had already far surpassed that of an ordinary Heavenly King. Nobody was willing to offend such a brilliant scientific prodigy. Not to mention that several Heavenly Kings and Champions stood firmly behind him as supporters.
...…
"The match begins!"
Augustine composed himself. There wasn't much true fairness in this world to begin with.
If he possessed Key Stones and Mega Evolution worth hundreds of millions of Pokédollars, he would use them without a moment's hesitation too. Unfortunately, he didn't have a Key Stone and couldn't afford to buy one even if he wanted to.
Clenching his fist tightly, Augustine stared intensely at Jacob, his eyes burning with determination. So what if I don't have Mega Evolution? As long as my own strength is powerful enough, I'll prove that I can defeat Mega Evolution anyway. The secret trump card I've prepared was saved specifically for this exact moment.
Augustine pulled out a Poké Ball and released his first Pokémon. "Go, Pelipper!"
"Go, Sceptile."
Almost without exception, Augustine's opening move in every single match involved sending out Pelipper first to establish Rain Dance weather conditions.
Knowing full well that Augustine would definitely send out Pelipper first, Jacob naturally selected Sceptile's Poké Ball and sent his Grass-type onto the field.
Sceptile, which had mastered Thunder Punch, was more than capable of posing a fatal threat to Pelipper, which had a quadruple weakness to Electric-type attacks.
The moment Pelipper appeared on the battlefield, its Drizzle ability activated automatically. Water-type energy spread outward from its body in rippling waves. In an instant, dark clouds covered the sky and the arena grew dim, as if heavy rain was about to pour down at any moment.
"Jacob." At that moment, Augustine on the opposite side suddenly called out Jacob's name directly. "Fight me with your full strength. Don't hold back even slightly, or you might actually lose."
???
Hearing Augustine's words, Jacob's mind filled with question marks.
Was this the confidence of a delusional teenager?
He might lose? Was Augustine seriously suggesting that even Mega Sceptile combined with Mega Charizard might not be enough to win? What kind of secret trump card could possibly make him so confident?
Did Augustine really have some hidden ace up his sleeve? Jacob couldn't help but wonder silently, 'Should I just send out Iron Valiant instead?'
"Strength isn't proven through words alone, Augustine. Let me see exactly how much real skill you actually possess." Jacob remained somewhat cautious in his heart as he commanded, "Sceptile, use Thunder Punch!"
Following Jacob's command, Sceptile's fists began crackling with brilliant lightning. Electric-type energy enveloped both of its fists completely, and its emerald green body charged directly toward Pelipper with incredible speed.
"Boom!"
Thunder rumbled ominously overhead, like nature's heavy symphony, and the gentle patter of raindrops began falling, quickly escalating into a torrential downpour.
It was raining heavily now.
"Come back, Pelipper!"
Augustine had made extensive preparations for this particular match, simulating it countless times in his mind. The conclusion was that his win rate stood at less than 10%, but there was still that precious 10% chance of victory.
As long as the win rate wasn't absolute zero, he would never surrender or give up!
Thunder Punch?
Everything is proceeding exactly within my expectations. Augustine smiled confidently. I've seen through your tactics completely.
Facing Augustine's sudden switch, Jacob's brow furrowed slightly. At this critical moment, Augustine would most likely switch in his ace Pokémon, Ferrothorn.
As for Swampert, that option seemed highly unlikely. Although the Ground-type Swampert was naturally immune to Electric-type attacks, its Water and Ground dual typing made it quadruple weak to Grass-type moves. Sending it out to battle Sceptile would be essentially equivalent to sending it to certain defeat.
Augustine retrieved a different Poké Ball and threw it onto the field with confidence.
"Boom!"
The Pokémon that had just materialized on the battlefield hadn't even had time to fully react when Sceptile's Thunder Punch connected solidly with its body.
"This is..."
Sceptile's Thunder Punch struck the dark green Pokémon standing before it, but caused surprisingly minimal damage. Instead, Sceptile itself got hurt by the Rocky Helmet the opponent was holding as equipment.
It's Bellibolt!
Simultaneously, Bellibolt's body shimmered with brilliant electric light as its Electromorphosis ability activated. After taking damage, it had entered a Charged state automatically.
While in the Charged state, the power of the next Electric-type move it used would be doubled.
A Gym Leader level Bellibolt?!
Jacob's frown deepened, a flash of genuine concern crossing his features. Up until this very moment, Augustine had never once used this particular Pokémon, Bellibolt, in any of his previous matches. Was this his carefully hidden trump card?
And just then, the Bellibolt that had only just appeared suddenly surged with powerful Water-type energy, and a large volume of water splashed forcefully toward Sceptile.
Bellibolt had actually executed a move directly without waiting for Augustine's verbal command!
This was a Water-type move that inflicted no direct damage whatsoever.
Jacob's mind raced rapidly as he analyzed the situation. Among all the Water-type moves that Bellibolt could possibly learn, only Rain Dance and Soak caused no damage to opponents.
The move being used in front of him clearly couldn't be Rain Dance, which meant it could only be Soak.
Soak had the unique ability to change the opponent's type to pure Water-type!
This meant Sceptile's typing would transform from a double-resistant Grass-type to a double-weak Water-type instead. Combined with the doubled Electric-type move damage from Bellibolt's Charged state, if Sceptile got hit by an Electric-type attack now, it would suffer quadruple damage!
The most critical factor was that even if Jacob switched in Charizard as a replacement, it would prove completely useless, because Charizard also had a double weakness to Electric-type attacks and would similarly take quadruple Electric-type damage.
If Bellibolt chose to use the Thunder move, which had perfect accuracy during rain conditions, neither Charizard nor Sceptile would likely be able to withstand the devastating blow!
Right now Jacob had only two viable options: switch in Noivern to absorb the hit, or have Sceptile Mega Evolve immediately!
Because after his Sceptile underwent Mega Evolution, its ability would transform into Lightning Rod. Once hit by an Electric-type move in that state, it wouldn't take any damage at all and would instead have its Special Attack stat raised by one stage.