"Magcargo, use Flamethrower, quick!"
Seeing that Golduck had been caught by the roots, Magcargo's trainer immediately gave the order to rescue him.
However, just as Magcargo unleashed his blaze, a root suddenly sprouted right in front of him, directly blocking the fire move. In the next instant, the entire root was wrapped in flames, but even so, the Flamethrower move was completely stopped.
"Bonemerang!"
At the same time, Cubone also sprang into action, throwing his bone like a brown projectile that struck Magcargo hard, sending him flying.
Right after, a groan of pain was heard from Golduck. As his life energy was quickly drained, his movements also became weaker and powerless.
"What kind of ridiculous technique is this?"
"Those roots... could it be a Grass-type move like Frenzy Plant?"
"No matter what it is, hurry, make your Pokémon attack that Cacnea!"
The other trainers also noticed something was wrong and immediately ordered their Pokémon to go all out against Cacnea.
"Root Domain!"
Upon seeing this, Ethan Black's gaze turned serious.
At that moment, in different parts of the field, new roots began sprouting one after another. After absorbing all the life energy of Golduck and Persian, the number of roots had already reached twenty.
These roots, under Cacnea's control, extended toward the enemy Pokémon, directly using the roots to entangle them.
Immediately, three unsuspecting Pokémon were caught, their life energy quickly drained, absorbed as nutrients to grow even more roots.
"What are you all staring at?"
"Hurry, help my Pokémon! If our Pokémon fall now, it'll be much harder to deal with that Cacnea!"
Seeing their Pokémon being trapped by the roots and struggling desperately, their trainers looked terrified, shouting for help from the others.
In response, some trainers hesitated. On this battlefield, only about ten pairs of trainers remained, and three had already been eliminated. With Ethan Black's team included, only eight were left.
Therefore, despite the cries for help, most decided to keep ordering their Pokémon to attack Cacnea.
After all, they thought it best if both Cacnea and the other teams were eliminated, since only one winner would remain in the end.
"Hahaha, welcome!"
"Cacnea, defend with all your roots!"
Ethan Black, seeing so many Pokémon rushing in, showed no sign of panic.
To him, losing simply meant being eliminated from the tournament, nothing more. In that case, he decided to use the situation as an opportunity to train Cacnea.
Only under pressure can one improve!
"Cac cac cac!"
Hearing the order, Cacnea didn't hold back. He used the move Ingrain to its maximum.
In an instant, the ground around Cacnea began to dry up, turning into sand. Then, one after another, roots quickly emerged from the soil and formed a defensive wall of roots around him.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
At the same time, more than ten Pokémon were already attacking Cacnea, including Fire- and Ice-type moves that were especially effective against roots.
"Cac cac!"
After resisting some of the attacks with his roots, Cacnea used them to grab a Pinsir that was charging forward, pulling it toward him and using it as a shield.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
In that wave of attacks, the poor Pinsir was directly knocked out by the hits. Cacnea then tossed it like a sandbag against the approaching Pokémon.
Seeing Pinsir flying toward them, several Pokémon recoiled in fear. Immediately after, another Pokémon was caught by the roots and dragged in front of Cacnea, who activated the move Absorb at full power.
"What a terrifying root domain!"
After carefully observing how Cacnea used that special technique of Ingrain, the audience swallowed hard.
It was brutal. There were more than twenty Pokémon on the field, and none could break through the root defense. Cacnea was even taking the chance to knock several of them out!
The most chilling part was that Cacnea could absorb the life energy of enemy Pokémon with Absorb, turning it into nutrients to grow more roots.
Thus, after each wave of enemy attacks, not only did the number of roots not decrease—it actually increased!
Dozens of roots swayed around Cacnea, creating an almost impenetrable wall.
Furthermore, even if some move managed to break through the defense, Cubone was still there as a powerful ally, making it nearly impossible to truly damage Cacnea.
"What an incredible root domain!"
Even Sarah Anderson, a highly knowledgeable companion, looked astonished at the field completely covered in roots.
Her brown eyes, beneath the frame of her glasses, were fixed on the roots beneath Cacnea, trying to figure out how such a root domain had been created.
"Could it be that cacti have an extremely developed root system, and Cacnea has learned to integrate Absorb into Ingrain?"
"Maybe it's also related to the desert environment. After all, to survive in the desert, one needs strong roots and the ability to absorb all nearby nutrients."
And it was no surprise—Sarah Anderson was, after all, one of the best students at the Pokémon University of Ironvale City. Just from conjecture, she had nearly deduced the secret behind Cacnea's special way of using Ingrain.
Nevertheless, the reason Cacnea achieved such an overwhelming victory was partly because his opponents weren't that strong. Whereas Cacnea, using his Root Domain, was already at the highest level of that power range.
"Magmar has lost the ability to battle."
"Therefore, the winners are Cacnea and Cubone!"
Finally, under the unstoppable pressure of the rooting, all opponents were completely crushed by the overwhelming number of roots.
One against ten!
Cacnea achieved the final victory, eliminating all the other teams.
(End of chapter)