May did not expect that the Battle Palace, which looked so full of history, would actually have such advanced technology.
However, she felt this was good, as it was indeed quite convenient.
She asked again, "But since that is the case, how are we supposed to command the Pokémon in battle?"
Spenser chuckled and stroked his long beard.
He smiled and said, "Of course, there is no way to give orders. In such a vast forest, and without a Trainer's commands, winning will depend entirely on the Pokémon's own strength!"
No giving commands to his own Pokémon?
Letting the Pokémon fight however they want?
Natsui rubbed his chin.
Why did this sound so familiar?
Wait...
Wasn't this exactly his specialty!?
On the other side, seeing that May had no more questions, Spenser started to turn around to go to the Trainer's command area on the other side.
However, Natsui suddenly called out to him.
"Wait a moment, Spenser."
Spenser stopped and turned to look at Natsui.
"What is it?"
Natsui smiled and said, "It is rare to find such a large battlefield. So, I was wondering if we could change the rules slightly?"
Hearing this, not only Spenser but even May focused her gaze on Natsui.
Both were a bit confused.
Change the rules?
Did Natsui think these rules were too difficult?
That shouldn't be right!
"Of course you can," Spenser said, not minding at all.
He just asked with a smile, "How would you like to change them?"
Natsui turned his head to look at the vast battlefield below the mountain.
He shook his head and said, "This field is so big and complex, yet having only two Pokémon battle seems a bit too boring. How about this: we don't need to play three separate rounds. We can just release all three Pokémon at once and let them fight freely in the forest. The last side with Pokémon remaining will be the winner of this challenge!"
Some people might find these rules familiar.
Yes, this was the famous 'Survival' mode!
In a complex battlefield, the Pokémon that fights until the very end wins for the whole team.
It was very suitable for the current situation.
After hearing Natsui's words, Spenser was surprised at first.
Then he asked, "But if we do that, isn't it a huge gamble? You won't have any chance to adjust your lineup."
"Isn't that perfect?" Natsui shrugged, acting like it didn't matter.
"This way, we can test the individual and cooperative abilities of the Pokémon. It fits the law of the jungle perfectly."
Since he put it that way, Spenser thought for a moment and then nodded.
"Since you have made up your mind, it is no problem at all."
Having agreed on the match rules, the two men went to their respective Trainer command areas and stood facing each other.
As the Palace Maven, Spenser was the first to release his Pokémon.
He took three Poké Balls from his robe.
As he threw them out together in a flash of blue light, a Shiftry, a Claydol, and a Venusaur appeared on the battlefield.
Only about half a second slower than him, Natsui also took out his Pokémon.
As he threw three Poké Balls toward the ground, his battle lineup was revealed in the next second.
Scizor, Metagross, and Dragonite.
Regarding these three Pokémon, Dragonite and Scizor went without saying.
They had long been Natsui's main Pokémon in the Johto and Hoenn regions.
Their strength was at the level of a League Champion.
Meanwhile, Metagross was also growing quickly and its strength was steadily improving.
Natsui releasing them all at once showed his absolute confidence in winning this forest battle.
After appearing, except for Metagross, whose heart was as cold as stone, Dragonite and Scizor instantly exploded with an aura completely different from their usual selves.
They glared fiercely at their opponents.
Compared to them, Spenser's Shiftry and Venusaur were naturally unwilling to back down.
They chose to glare back.
However, compared to Dragonite's wide-eyed stare and its expressive facial features, the aura of Spenser's two Pokémon was clearly a bit weaker.
At this time, the flying referee robot also flew to the center of the field.
Seeing that both sides were ready, the light on its body representing the start changed from red to green!
In that exact instant, all six Pokémon moved at the same time!
Because there were many Pokémon and the field was so wide, calculating type advantages at this point was already meaningless.
The speed of these Pokémon varied, but since it had wings, Dragonite was the first to reach the other side of the battlefield where Spenser was.
After dodging two Vine Whip attacks from Venusaur, it did a low-altitude dive and slammed the nearby Shiftry directly toward the cliff!
Fortunately, the moment Shiftry was hit, it grabbed onto Dragonite's body in time.
It did not fall down the cliff but flew toward the forest in the distance along with Dragonite!
After them, Scizor and Venusaur immediately began to fight.
Whether it was Venusaur's Razor Leaf or Vine Whip, neither had any effect against Scizor's two huge claws!
Almost as soon as Scizor got close, Venusaur fell into a disadvantage!
The nearby Claydol wanted to help Venusaur, but at that moment, Metagross's Psychic attack arrived.
This made it impossible for Claydol to be distracted, so it could only focus on its own opponent.
Just as they had said before the match, neither Natsui nor Spenser intended to interfere in the Pokémon battle.
Just like May, they were both acting as spectators.
However, there were big differences between these spectators.
Natsui was a pure spectator.
He had his hands in his pockets and looked at everything calmly, appearing as if it "had nothing to do with him."
On the other hand, May and Spenser were completely focused.
Because Natsui had told May to watch the battle from his perspective and try to learn something, May kept her eyes wide.
She did not want to miss a single detail.
She truly wanted to see something she could use for herself.
Looking at Spenser, he had never encountered this style of fighting before.
Six Pokémon were fighting wildly on a giant battlefield.
Even though he was full of energy, his eyes and mind were a bit slow for an elderly man.
In short, Natsui was watching with ease, while May and Spenser were watching with tension!
Since there were no boundary limits, after falling into a disadvantage, Venusaur did not force itself to stay and fight Scizor.
Instead, it turned around and ran down the small hill, entering the forest as well.
That was its home turf.
A Grass-type Pokémon would clearly show more power in a forest.
Seeing it run away, Scizor did not hesitate and chased after it.
Only two or three minutes after the start of the battle, only Claydol and Metagross were left on the mountain battlefield.
Even these two did not stay long.
As they fought, they also left the mountaintop field.
Now, except for Natsui, May, and Spenser, there were no other living beings present.
They could only hear the sounds of battle coming from the distant forest from time to time.
At this moment, the referee robot finally became useful.
It also flew quickly into the forest below.
On the computer screen split from the machine referee, the images from the camera appeared almost simultaneously.
But since there was only one referee robot, it couldn't watch everything.
Therefore, its tracking footage only showed Metagross and Claydol, who were the last to leave.
This was enough to let the three people focus more on one of the battles.
On the screen, Metagross and Claydol were both floating in mid-air.
While moving through the forest, they attacked each other.
Looking at their types, one was Steel and Psychic, while the other was Ground and Psychic.
With such types, it was hard to say who had the advantage.
One could only say both had a chance to win.
But that was just the winning probability on paper.
What truly affected the result of the match was not that, but the Pokémon's condition, mindset, and experience!
Although Spenser's Claydol looked very powerful, the Metagross that had been tested in the Pokémon League was naturally not weak.
Without any Trainer participation, the two Pokémon were actually fighting a very close battle.
Of course, this was the most intense pair in the entire arena.
Although Natsui could not see the battle between Dragonite and Scizor, he heard the loud explosions of moves and the crashing sounds of falling trees coming from the forest.
Natsui knew in his heart that they must have the upper hand.
This came from his confidence in his Pokémon's strength, and Natsui firmly believed it was so!
Sure enough, a sudden violent explosion was heard.
The sound was deafening and almost echoed through the whole island.
When Natsui and the others turned to look, they saw a flash of blinding bright light in a part of the forest.
The light was so bright that it made half the forest look like it was wrapped in green light.
The three people present were not beginners, so they naturally guessed what that was.
May asked, "Was that an explosion caused by two moves colliding?"
"Yes." Natsui nodded.
"It should be the collision of Venusaur's Solar Beam and Scizor's X-Scissor."
Solar Beam and X-Scissor?
May nodded, but she couldn't help but admire Natsui in her heart.
She naturally knew those two moves.
In terms of both level and power, they were very different.
But Natsui's Scizor could actually use X-Scissor to cancel out Venusaur's Solar Beam.
This deeply shocked her!
Although the Bug-type advantage over Grass-type played a part, it could not hide Scizor's own brilliance!
Actually, it wasn't just her.
Even Spenser widened his eyes slightly when he saw this.
Then, he took a deep look at Natsui.
He didn't get much news and didn't care much about what happened outside.
Naturally, he didn't know who Natsui was or what he had done.
However, that did not stop him from feeling the powerful strength coming from this man's Pokémon!
What an impressive young man...
It was no wonder he had such confidence to send all three Pokémon onto the field and not give a single command.
Compared to previous challengers, he seemed to be on a completely different level...
After the clash ended, that area became completely quiet.
This made the three realize that one Pokémon must have been defeated.
Needless to say, it was likely Spenser's Venusaur.
One could only say the speed was truly fast.
It had only been about ten minutes since they started fighting.
In a normal-sized battlefield, this might be a medium-length battle.
But in such a giant battlefield, with such complex environments and travel time included, it was very quick.
It felt like the battle had just started and then it was already over.
Before Spenser could say anything, another loud noise came.
The three quickly turned to the other side.
They saw another explosion near the beach on the other side, in the direction where Dragonite and Shiftry were fighting.
Compared to the battle between Scizor and Venusaur just now, the noise made by Dragonite and Shiftry was also quite large.
It caused many trees to fall, and even the surface of the sea was splashed with countless sprays of water.
Just like before, after the explosion, the battle there quieted down.
People had no way of knowing what had happened.
However, Natsui understood that, unless something unexpected happened, his Dragonite should have won.
It wasn't that Natsui was overconfident, nor was it that Spenser's Pokémon weren't strong enough.
It was simply that Dragonite and Scizor were worthy of that much trust!
Unlike May, who was clearly happy, Spenser silently withdrew his gaze and focused on the screen in front of him.
Now, only Metagross and Claydol were still fighting.
However, perhaps because they were making too much noise, or perhaps they had broken into the territory of some wild Pokémon, while Metagross and Claydol were fighting intensely, countless Beedrill flew out from nowhere.
They began to attack both Pokémon indiscriminately.
This was truly unexpected for the three of them.
Regarding this, Spenser only shook his head helplessly.
"This is truly bad," he said with a bitter smile.
"Originally, the wild Pokémon here have a very strong sense of territory. They were set up as obstacles for challengers. I didn't expect that today I would be trapped by my own design, and my own Pokémon would become their targets. It's quite ironic."
Even before this, Natsui could have guessed it.
These Beedrill usually lived in various parts of the forest and would attack challengers who entered suddenly.
They were meant to add some unpredictability to the already complex battlefield.
However, today several battles were happening at the same time, and such strong explosions had occurred.
This had made the Beedrill angry.
Therefore, they didn't care about territory anymore and came out to find the culprits.
This undoubtedly made the battle much more difficult.
Swarms of Beedrill poured out.
Even if their individual strength was low, having so many gathered together still made one's skin crawl.
Although Metagross and Claydol were not normal animal-like or human-like Pokémon—looking more like stone and clay—they were not stupid.
Encountering this situation, they didn't dare stay where they were.
They both turned and fled back toward the path they came from!